Dancing with the Devil's Daughter
by Lynyrd Lionheart
Summary: -HIATUS- Edward always said that he didn't want to damn Bella's soul, but what if it was already damned? Bella's lived in Forks her whole life, and when the Cullens arrive, it's a very different girl that they are faced with.
1. The Family with the Golden Eyes

_**A/N1: I'm going to try something I've never tried before: writing two stories at once. For those of you who read "God Love Her" (if anyone reading this does), then I'll warn you now that this is going to be very, very different. Bella is OOC, but the others should be mostly in character. Thank-you to the lovely folks at Project Team Beta for beta-ing this chapter for me.**_

**One. The Family with Golden Eyes**

At Forks High School, there was only one rule.

Do not piss Bella Swan off.

It was a rule that the students and teachers alike followed. Bad things happened to people who pissed me off. Things like broken bones, broken cars and, in the case of one Lauren Mallory, the need for a nose job.

Only the last incident carried any proof of my guilt, but if enough bad things happen to people who only have one thing in common, said people tend to catch onto what's going on.

Usually when new kids come to Forks, they're immediately informed of the unspoken rule. They don't believe it at first- after all, how evil can one little teenage girl be?

It doesn't take those non-believers long to find out.

Since new kids were always informed of the danger I posed, it was no surprise to me when I entered English one Monday morning to the tail end of Jessica Stanley's explanation to a small raven-haired girl whom I had never seen before.

"And whatever you do, stay clear of Bella Swan. I mean, she looks harmless, but the girl is, like, evil incarnate or something. Get in her way, and bad stuff will happen."

"Oh Jess." I clapped her on the shoulder and spoke airily. "You think so little of me. Where's the faith? Where's the love?"

Jessica looked at me with wide, terrified eyes, wondering if she was going to be the next victim of the "bad things" she had spoken of. I quirked my head at her, contemplating whether or not it would be worth it to do anything, but then I decided against it.

Jessica was the best source of Forks gossip, and as long as I didn't harm her, she would continue to relay to me anything I wanted to know to avoid changing that unharmed status.

"I'm Alice Cullen," the small girl Jessica had been speaking to piped up, interrupting the terror fest. I looked at her with a raised eyebrow while Jessica's eyes nearly popped out of her head.

"Yeah, a word of advice, new girl," I leaned down so that we were at eye level. "Everything, and I do mean _everything_, Jessica says about me is most likely true. When she says stay clear of me, she's not being a bitch. She's just telling you what everyone else in this back-woods town already knows."

Straightening, I walked to my seat in the back of the class and slumped down. Another Monday meant another week in school. Hell, but I couldn't wait to get out of this town. My attention was drawn to my right when Angela Webber sat next to me. The only person I could stand in this school and the only one who knew who, and what, I was, Angela used me as a way to rebel against her Minister father.

I allowed her to because it gave me a sick, twisted pleasure to know that I was leading Reverend Webber's daughter down the path to hell.

"What do you know about the new kid?" I asked her.

"Kids," Angela replied. "There are five of them, the little one up there and four others."

"Four comes after five?" I gasped in mock shock. "How _did_ I not know that?"

"Do you want to know about them or not?" Angela asked.

"Careful, Angie," I sneered. "You're amusing, but I don't exactly need you."

When fear came into Angela's eyes, it was much more satisfying because she knew exactly what I was capable of. Jessica was afraid I'd hurt her annoying little face, but Angela knew that I could destroy her very soul.

"Besides her, there's a boy in our year and a girl and two other boys who are in senior year. They're the new doctor's foster kids. I would've thought you'd know all this, being the police chief's… daughter," Angela hesitated over the last word. She knew as well as I that I was no more Charlie's daughter than I was the Queen of England.

"Charlie and I don't exactly speak a whole lot," I replied. "I think I recall hearing some of the masses talking about new kids, but I just never paid attention. New blood is always fun…"

My musings came to a halt when the teacher entered the class. It was a sub.

"Hello class, I'm Mr. Asmodai, and I'll be filling in for Mr. Brick for the day. He tells me that you're to begin reading Macbeth today, so books out. Hurry up now!"

Asmodai's eyes searched through the class until they came to rest on mine. I met them evenly. Even without the obvious last name, I had recognized Asmodai for exactly what he was the second he entered the class.

"Bella." Angela's hand came out to grasp my arm. "Is he what I _think_ he is?"

I looked at Angela whose lips had gone pale as she stared at Asmodai.

"Yes," I replied silkily. "Please release my arm, and stop looking like you're going to piss yourself. I imagine he has a message to deliver."

The class passed in a haze of boredom. Macbeth was my favourite book by Shakespeare; the ambition and deceit of the main characters appealed to me, but listening to my classmates butcher the prose held no interest after the first three lines.

The class finally came to a close, and Asmodai revealed that I had been right about his reasons for being there when he spoke above the sound of students packing up.

"Would a Miss Bella Swan stay after class? Mr. Brick left a message for you with me."

Mr. Brick did, suuuuuuure.

Angela was the first to leave the room. Tempting fate with me was one thing, but Asmodai was quite another. Little Alice Cullen was the last, and she looked between Asmodai and I with a confused, troubled frown before leaving the class.

There was something weird about that girl.

"So, who are you?" I asked, strutting to the front of the class.

"I am the high demon Asmodeus, my princess," Asmodai, now revealed to be Asmodeus, replied with a bow. "Your father sent me with a summons."

"Why?" I asked.

"I do not question the Lord of Darkness, princess. I merely obey."

I rolled my eyes at the typical loyal demon reply. It would be a lot more interesting if the damn creatures _would_ ask Father questions. At least watching him torture them might offer some more amusement than my fellow classmates.

"When does he require my presence?" I drawled out.

"Tonight, without exception," Asmodeus replied quickly. "Refusal will result in your skin being melted from your bones."

"Good to know," I replied brightly, heading for the door. "Tell dear old Dad I'll be there. And Asmodeus? Next time, choose something a little less obvious than 'Asmodai.' Discretion is the name of the game here."

Asmodeus bowed in reply, and I left the room. I wondered if he'd stick around to teach the rest of Brick's classes now that he'd delivered his message, and then I decided it wasn't of any interest to me… although the response of the school's administration when they realized Mr. Asmodai had been a fraud would be amusing.

The rest of my morning passed much as English had- in a state of boredom. When lunch finally came around, I had almost fallen into a coma from the monotony. My future job didn't require learning subjects like Math, and I had inherited the gift of tongues from my father, making Spanish a cake walk. The boredom meant that I was in a less than good mood as I entered the cafeteria. The mood was made worse when I saw that little Alice Cullen and her siblings had taken over the table in the back of the cafeteria where I always sat. I saw Jessica and Mike Newton speaking earnestly to them, keeping a nervous eye on the door. When he saw me enter, Mike blanched and made a quick retreat from the table. Jessica wasn't far behind.

My guess was that they'd warned the new kids about the normal seating arrangement, but the foolish little children refused to listen. Not that they were all little. There was a brawny one who might have been enough to make me back down if it weren't for the fact that I didn't back down. From anything.

As it was, I was me, and the giant on steroids didn't really frighten me.

"Are you going to cause a scene?" Angela asked me quietly as she met me in the line for the day's special.

"What do you think this is supposed to be?" I asked her, looking at the brown mess that Helga the lunch lady, and quite possibly the only person in this school more frightening than me, had dumped on my plate. "Is this supposed to be some sort of meat? Helga, is this some sort of meat?"

"No, but we're saying it is," Helga replied in her heavily accented voice. Helga was from Germany and had biceps even larger than the giant on steroids.

"Fair enough." I shrugged and continued on to grab an orange juice. Helga and I understood each other. We weren't exactly friendly, but we both liked to make other lives miserable, so we were kindred spirits.

"Bella, you didn't answer my question," Angela said as I began to make my way to the Cullen table.

"That's because it was a silly question. I don't cause scenes, Angie dear… at least not in any way that can be proved."

"That doesn't make me feel any better," Angela grumbled, but she followed behind me anyway.

"Hey kids," I said cheerily when I arrived at the table. "I know you're all new, so I'm willing to forgive this first transgression, but this is my table. Now, most normal people would just shrug it off and sit elsewhere, but I'm not normal, and I'm opposed to change unless it benefits me in some way, so I'm going to have to ask you all to skidaddle and find somewhere else to uh… are you all anorexic or something? Because you don't appear to be eating, so you can go have your little eating disorder support group elsewhere."

Tact had never been a strong point of mine.

"And why should we move?" The speaker was a golden haired beauty of a girl who reminded me of the Succubi that worked for Father. "We were here first."

"Actually, I was here first. You see, you just got here today, and I've been here since, well, infancy, so…" I trailed off and made a shooing motion. "You can leave any time."

"It's just a table, not that big of a deal," this time it was one of the males, a bronze haired Adonis that got all my girly bits wriggling. I was surprised at that. I hadn't been attracted to a guy since I'd almost had sex with an Incubi. It was a case of almost because we were caught. The Incubi currently resided on the seventh level of hell thanks to Father.

"It's a change that doesn't benefit me, thus it's unacceptable," I replied after I silenced the girly bits. I shrugged airily at them. "What can I say? I'm a bitch of epic proportions."

"So the gossip mill says," the blonde Succubus stood. "But you see, Bella, right? You see, Bella, I'm a bitch too, and I'm a lot scarier than you, so…" she made the same shoo motion as I had. "Off you go."

I felt my lips turn up in a wicked grin, and little Alice looked at me a bit nervously.

"Why are you smiling?" she asked me.

"Oh… it's just been a while since someone actually stood up to me. Lauren was the last one. Her daddy tried to sue me for the nose job," I quirked my head, looking directly into the blonde's defiant eyes. I heard Angela gulp next to me, and I wondered if my darker nature was showing like it occasionally did or if Angela just felt it simmering beneath the surface. I was tempted to allow my true nature out to play. Barbie wouldn't be so arrogant then. "He's bankrupt now. But I'm sure that was just a coincidence. Come on, Angie. There's a table over there. I'll play nice for right now."

The two of us moved away from the Cullens and towards the new table.

"What are you going to do to them?" Angela asked nervously.

"Nothing terrible, and only to Barbie there," I replied softly. "They're new. I like to give the newbies a chance to learn. Let's hope she turns out to be like Lauren, though," I looked to where Lauren sat, alone and avoiding looking at me at all costs. The others were afraid to get too close to her for fear of raising my ire. That made me laugh, as Lauren was no longer on my radar. I had broken her and thus had no more interest in her. "Life has been boring lately."

"You frighten me," Angela said as we sat down.

"I'd be worried if I didn't." I looked at Angela. "You know what I am, Angela. You can walk away anytime you want, I won't stop you."

"Won't you?" Angela looked almost tired. "You're vengeful, Bella."

"You're human, Angie. Fleeting," I eyed the Cullens as I spoke, wondering how to hit Barbie the hardest. "If you want to walk, then walk. Just make sure you keep your mouth shut if you do."

Angela didn't reply, and we spent the whole lunch period in silence.

After lunch I had Biology, yet another useless course that I was forced to sit through. I was sitting at my normal table when the Adonis from the Cullen table entered.

"Ah, Mr. Cullen, welcome. There's only one seat available, I'm afraid. It looks like you'll finally have a partner, Isabella," Mr. Banner motioned at the boy to join me at my table. "Try to make Edward feel welcome, won't you?"

"I'm not the greeting committee," I replied dryly. "But I'll try my very best."

"Be sure you do."

Unlike most of the teachers who feared me, Banner and I had a love-hate relationship. We loved to hate each other. He was also the only teacher whom I even somewhat respected, mostly because he wasn't terrified of me.

I could respect both the very brave and the very stupid. They were amusing in their own ways.

"I'm Edward Cullen," Edward said sitting down. "And you're Bella Swan."

"Really?" I gasped in mock surprise. "And here I was thinking I was Mary Sunshine. I know my own name, Edward. I've kinda grown up with it. As for your name… I caught that when Banner said it."

"You're not very friendly, are you?"

I snorted at the brilliant observation.

"Were you out of it when I told your table I was a bitch at lunch, or did I just look like I was kidding? Because I really wasn't. Can we stop with the small talk? It makes me sort of nauseous, and, honestly, I like my eye candy silent."

"Eye candy?" Edward looked confused, and I snorted again.

"You're a hottie with a body, Cullen. Now, I rarely pay attention in class unless someone's getting humiliated, so my choices are to either stare out the window or stare at you. Since there's a distinct lack of truly attractive males at this school, I plan on spending the class mentally undressing you. That'll work a lot better for me if you don't talk. Talking ruins it," I gave him a small, flirtatious grin. "You're welcome to do the same to me if you want, I don't mind."

Edward stared at me, his mouth working in silent shock, and, if I didn't know any better, he looked a bit scandalized. Was he really that innocent?

"I… honestly don't know how to reply to that," he said at last.

"You don't. You just stop talking." I gave him another one of my wicked grins, but this time, instead of being evil like the one I gave Barbie, it was just naughty. "You're welcome to mentally undress me if it makes you feel any more comfortable."

His eyes snapped ahead, and I expected to see a blush on his cheeks. There was none which made me frown. Someone who seemed as uncomfortable as Edward should be blushing, and the fact that he wasn't was odd.

I guess Alice wasn't the only weird one in the Cullen family.

Edward continued to stare straight ahead until the end of Biology, when he couldn't seem to get out of the class fast enough. I laughed at his eagerness to get away from me, almost unable to believe how innocent the boy apparently was.

Tempting the opposite sex was just one of the traits I had inherited from my father. Nearly every male in this school was terrified of me, but not one of them would say 'no' if I gave them a wink and a come hither stare.

Except, apparently, Edward.

I wondered if his brothers would be the same.

That night, Charlie and I didn't speak to each other, as was usual. He was aware that I wasn't his daughter and that there was something off about me, but he was unable to toss aside the only living reminder of the woman he had loved. Instead, he ignored me.

Renee, my mother, had died giving birth to me. I had found out when I was older that it was to be expected. Humans couldn't handle giving birth to a being like me, so one of them had to die. I was the first and only of my father's children to survive, rather than being miscarried. He claimed it showed strength of character. I thought it was just pure stubbornness.

On my fourth birthday, my birth father had made his first appearance to me. Since then, he had been teaching me of the nature I inherited from him. Though I was half human, that part of my nature was all but buried after the years of his tutelage and my trips to hell.

Hell, where I was currently going. Up until eighteen months ago, I had required someone to bring me there, but I had finally mastered the art of travelling between the worlds and could finally make the trip alone.

Hell usually brings forth images of fire, brimstone and torture, all of which it does contain, but on a different level from the one I travelled to. The main level, and Satan's domain, was actually as luxurious as any mansion and held three times as many temptations as Hugh Hefner's paradise.

The floor was a checked black and white marble, and the whole place was decorated in varying shades of black, white, and grey. It was all very expensive looking and very chic. Father was nothing if not stylish.

"Ah, Isabella darling, you've arrived."

A common misconception mortals have of Satan is that he is red-skinned, horned, or tailed, and obviously not human. In reality, when in his human form, he was tall and lean with black hair, red eyes, pale skin, and looks that put a GQ model to shame. It was really no surprise that the master of temptation was temptation embodied (at least to women).

I had inherited his pale skin and eyes, though mine were so dark that they almost appeared brown unless I was feeling some strong emotion. If my eyes were crimson, then it meant run like hell in the opposite direction.

"Hello, Father," I greeted, sprawling out on one of his many comfortable black leather couches. "Asmodeus said you wished to see me?"

"What, no hug?"

I looked at him dryly, and he gave me a familiar wicked grin. It was yet another thing I had inherited from him.

"I have a job for you," he said, sitting on a chaise lounge across from me.

"What kind of a job?"

"It's for one of my servants on Earth. Aro of the Volturi."

"The vampire?" I sat up, suddenly interested. I had never actually met a vampire, but I had heard plenty of stories and knew that Aro was one of my father's particular favourites. It was no surprise, really, considering that the man (or creature, whichever you prefer) had been willing to kill his own sister to protect his power.

"Yes, the vampire," my father said with a bow of his head. "I have decided to reward him for his centuries of excellent service; he was the one that sent us that lawyer who bankrupted the Mallory family for us, after all. Aro wishes for us to lead an old friend of his into temptation."

"Aro sounds like an excellent friend," I replied dryly, causing Father to laugh.

"Isn't he just? This old friend, Carlisle Cullen, has turned from the normal path of the vampire. Not only that, but he has also drawn to him several vampires with great gifts, gifts that make his family very powerful as well as abnormal. A mind-reader, a seer, and an empath."

"Cullens," I murmured. "I have Cullens that have just come to my school."

"That would be them," Father replied. "I managed to plant the seed into Carlisle's mind to return to Forks. That was the easy part, as it was already an option for them. The hard part will be up to you. Aro wants the entire coven turned back to the normal way of life. Not only that, but he wants them to join the Volturi."

"Are you sure that's smart?" I asked. "Giving your followers that much power…"

"Oh, I don't plan on giving them all to the Volutri, Isabella. There's one I want for my own… or rather, I want _you_ to have for your own."

"Me?" I was getting confused.

"There's a mind-reader. His name is Edmund or something like that… or is it Edgar?"

"Edward?" I interrupted.

"That's it! Edward. As I said, he can read minds." My father laced his fingers together and rested his arms on his legs. "A fitting consort for a princess of hell, don't you think? And not only that, but with his ability it won't matter that Aro has the seer, as our very natures protect us from her power. As for the empath," my father laughed, "his powers are relatively useless against the likes of us."

"Why do you want Edward?" I asked.

"Because I don't trust Aro," my father replied. "He has served us well, but he'll turn on us the moment it suits him. With the Edward boy on our side, we can be forewarned if Aro plans anything."

I sighed.

"You ask a lot of me."

"You find Edward unattractive?" my father asked.

I thought of Edward and his abnormal good looks. The thought of anyone finding him unattractive made me snort.

"The boy is as fine a piece of ass as there ever was," I laughed when Father frowned at me for my crassness. "One of them is a doctor, Father. A vampire who is a doctor? He would require incredible levels of pure…_goodness_."

"Are you saying it's outside of your skill level? Because I'm sure I can find someone else to do it. Perhaps Bianka…"

"I'll do it," I snapped, growling at the thought of Bianka, a trampish Succubus, going anywhere _near_ Edward. "But I expect to be paid double."

"Isabella, dear, I don't pay you."

"Well, maybe you should start!"

My father's laughter followed me as I left the realm of hell for my room back in Forks. To think, I had just been bemoaning my boredom at lunch that day.

Now I had my work cut out for me.

_**A/N2: So, what do you think? I let my beta for "God Love Her" read this and was informed that Bella freaked her out, and I hope she does the same to everyone else. This Bella is not meant to be nice; I will say it right now- Bella is evil in this story. Let me know what you think, and if you would like to see more chapters.**_


	2. The Girl with the Red Eyes

_**A/N: I was very impressed with the first chapter's feedback. Everyone seems to agree that my Bella is a bit creepy, which makes me smile one of her patented wicked grins. I have about the first seven chapters mapped out, and I can tell you that after this, the story moves at a fairly fast pace. Bella isn't one to procrastinate. Please enjoy:**_

**Two. The Girl With The Red Eyes**

"I can't believe the nerve of that girl. Trying to intimidate and threaten us! Typical pathetic little human."

Rosalie was still raging about the girl from lunch (and Biology), Isabella. Just the mention of her caused embarrassment to well up in me. I was used to the thoughts of human females being filled with daydreams, but none had ever been so crude right to my face.

I had felt oddly… _aroused_.

"What's up with you?" Jasper asked me. He and Emmett were on the couch, playing a competitive game of Call of Duty on the Xbox. Rose paced around angrily in the empty space between the furniture and my piano, growling about Isabella while Alice flicked through a fashion magazine of some sort. I could hear Esme flitting around upstairs making some last minute changes to the décor, while Carlisle was still at the hospital.

"I don't know what you're talking about," I replied uncomfortably, wishing, not for the first time, that Jasper's power was something, anything, other than the ability to read emotions.

_"One minute you're embarrassed, the next you're aroused. It's a bit confusing, Edward."_

"It's Isabella," I admitted out loud in response to Jasper's thought.

"What about her?" Rose asked, looking suddenly eager. "Did you hear something in her thoughts that could be useful?"

"No," I replied uneasily, and I hadn't. "I can't read her."

"You can't?" Alice sat up. "So I'm not the only one? Because I've been trying to see what she's going to try to do as revenge against Rose, but her future is just… blank. As if she doesn't exist."

"My ability works just fine," Jasper said, frowning. "She was frustrated when she saw us at her table, but when Rose stood up to her she became amused. That was a bit weird because normally human females are intimidated by Rose even without her threatening them."

"She found me _amusing_?" Rosalie hissed angrily. "I'll show that little brat _amusing_."

"Did you get anything from her friend, Angela?" Alice asked me, cutting Rose off before her rant could really get going.

"A bit. She sounded somewhat garbled, but I've come across that before. She seemed really worried that Isabella might do something bad to us," I admitted. "Although, I don't see what she could possibly do that would hurt us. It's not like she can break Rose's nose like she did the Mallory girl's."

"Isabella doesn't know that," Emmett pointed out. "I say let her try, and we'll scare her away like the little girl she is."

"I don't know," I replied. "Didn't anyone else notice her _smell_?"

She had to be the single most unique smelling individual I'd ever come across. On the surface it was all freesia and fresh air, and it should have been delicious, except that beneath all the loveliness there was-

"Brimstone," Alice said quietly. "It was faint, but there. Fire and brimstone… until we came here, I'd never encountered someone who smelled like that. It almost frightened me."

"She's a human, what could possibly be frightening about her?" Rosalie asked mockingly.

"Angela is afraid of her," Jasper said, pausing the game to look between Alice and me. "Not just afraid, actually, but terrified. For herself, and for everyone else. People don't fear their friends, not like that."

"So… can we safely say there's something weird about the girl?" Emmett asked.

"Yes," I agreed. There was something weird, something that should warn all of us to watch our step and keep our distance.

Instead, I felt longing.

Jasper looked at me sharply.

"That's not good, Edward," he stated. "You should keep away."

"I know," I replied. "There's something dangerous about her… but…"

"What's going on?" Emmett asked. "C'mon you guys. Not all of us have the funky mind reading and emotion feeling abilities. You have to speak so the rest of us understand."

"Edward is attracted to her," Jasper explained. The admission caused an uproar from the other three.

"What? How can you be attracted to that bitch-"

"Oh, great! Now your future's disappeared too. I swear to God if this gets you killed-"

"Dude, little brother is finally becoming a man!"

It was Emmett's exclamation that was heard above all the others and earned a glare from everyone but Jasper, who was too busy laughing.

"Not funny, Emmett," I growled.

"C'mon, Eddie," Emmett began, using the nickname that he knew I hated. "There's something weird about Isabella, but no male can deny that she _is_ attractive." Rose looked at him angrily, her nostrils flaring, so he hastily continued: "Not nearly as attractive as Rose, of course"-- Rose looked a little mollified by that-- "but hot all the same. Maybe this isn't a bad thing. I mean, you managed to ignore Tanya like she was nothing, so I was worried that you, you know, couldn't even feel attraction. But now we know you can."

"It's because her mind is silent," Alice said with a wisdom that seemed odd compared to her too-happy nature. "All the other girls, including Tanya, you could hear what they thought about you and it turned you off."

I thought of Isabella's blatant admittance that she would be stripping me with her eyes in Bio class and snorted at the reasoning.

"I don't need to be able to read her mind to tell what she'd like to do to me," I muttered. "She just tells me."

"What do you mean, 'she just tells you'?" Rose asked.

I sighed, and told them about what Isabella had said to me in the Biology classroom.

That set Emmett off into another round of hysterics.

"Oh, that's just too good!" he laughed. "Edward finally finds himself attracted, and it's to a femme fatale that goes against all his ideals of what a woman should be. Maybe _that's_ why you're attracted, Eddie. She's different."

"That's hardly the reason. I had to put up with visions of what teenage girls have wanted to do with me for years," I replied acidly. "If I wasn't attracted to that, then why would I be attracted to a _femme fatale_?"

"Because they imagined it, but they'd never come right out and say it. With Isabella, you have to supply the imaginings on your own. Are you telling me that you didn't take up her invitation to mentally undress her?"

I looked away from my brother, and if I had been human I would have blushed. Truth be told, I had done more than mentally undress her. If I had been able to sleep, I was quite certain that the images I had conjured of Isabella would have haunted my nights.

I wasn't completely sure they wouldn't anyway.

"All laughter aside," Jasper began. "You _do_ have to be careful with this, Edward. Everything in me is saying that Isabella Swan is dangerous."

"She's a human, how dangerous can she be?" Emmett scoffed.

"That's just it, Emmett." Jasper's voice was grim. "I'm not entirely sure she _is_ human."

"That's ridiculous Jasper." It was Rosalie's turn to scoff. "Of course she's human. Who else would live in _this_ backwater town?"

"We live here, don't we," I responded heavily. "So did the wolves. What's to say there aren't more supernatural beings out there?"

Neither Rosalie nor Emmett had a reply for that.

"Carlisle would probably know what she is. He spent enough time with the Volturi to be able to confirm the existence of most types of paranormal beings," Alice pointed out. "Maybe if we tell him about her, he'll be able to tell us what she is."

"Well, what do we know about her?" I asked. "That she isn't intimidated by Rosalie and smells a little like brimstone? That isn't enough to tell Carlisle _anything_, Alice."

"We know that our gifts don't work on her." Alice motioned between the two of us. "We also know that her supposed best friend is terrified of her, and that everyone at Forks thinks she's the scariest thing since Freddy Krueger. We also know that you should stay away from her until we know more."

Her words made me shoot up in my seat, my back ram-rod straight.

"Why do you say that? I may be our best chance at finding out what she is if she does indeed turn out to be less than human," I argued.

"You're also the one who's most susceptible to her… charms," Rosalie sneered the word, as if unable to understand how I could possibly find Isabella attractive. "I'm still not sold on this whole 'not human' idea, but it's really for the best that you not be involved with her if your theory turns out to be correct."

"What if our theory is correct, but she turns out to be completely harmless?" I retorted.

"The fact that you're arguing so strongly proves Alice right, Edward," Jasper said. "We don't know if we can trust this girl, and you're already infatuated with her. It's not safe, for any of us."

"I'm not infatuated," I scoffed. "I'm curious. Just like all of you are curious. We need to find out more about her, and I'm in the best position to do that, Jasper. You know that. I _know_ you know that."

"Well, here's another reason to avoid her," Alice began. "That English stand-in we had: Mr. Asmodai? He had that same smell of brimstone to him, only it was much more obvious that _he_ wasn't human."

"I never saw him," Rosalie said. "What was he like?"

"He _looked_ human," Alice replied. "But there was something… off about him. He made me feel cold, and I didn't think that was possible."

I frowned, looking away from my siblings so that I could gaze out the window. I hadn't had English that day, so I hadn't had the substitute, and the senior class had a different English teacher, meaning that we had to take Alice's word on this. I couldn't deny that it was odd.

As vampires, we rarely noted changes in temperature. For Alice to feel cold, something must have been completely off.

"Did anyone else in the class seem cold?" Jasper asked.

"No. It wasn't like what you'd feel if you were in a freezer or something. It was more… it was almost a feeling of dread that left me cold. It's hard to explain, but I've never felt anything like it. Angela Weber was out of the room pretty much as soon as the bell rang, and Isabella stayed behind. Asmodai claimed the regular teacher had left a note for her, but it seems suspicious to me. I wanted to stick around and listen to the conversation, but I had to get to my next class and there were too many people around for me to eavesdrop then run to the next building for Algebra."

"Angela knows," Jasper said immediately. "Whatever it is that's different about Isabella, she knows. I think Edward should pay close attention to her thoughts. Even if they aren't completely clear, it's still _something_."

I leaned forward, resting my forearms on my legs. This whole situation was weird. From my odd attraction to Isabella, to this mysterious substitute teacher, to Angela's fear of her own best friend, it was all just unsettling.

"I say we leave it be for now, and see what happens tomorrow. Without Alice's visions, we'll just have to take this one day at a time." I leaned back and looked at my siblings. "Agreed?"

"There's really nothing else we can do, is there?" Alice asked. "I agree, as long as _you_ agree to be careful when you're around Isabella. Until we know what she is, it's not safe for us to be alone around her unless necessary."

"I don't understand _why_ she's _our_ problem," Rosalie retorted. "Why should we care what she does with the humans, or why she's so weird as long as she stays away from us?"

"Because we don't know that she _will_ stay away from us. From what Edward says, the attraction between them is probably mutual. That means we may have to deal with her, Rose. We have to be prepared."

Rosalie huffed and flicked her hair over her shoulder, but her thoughts told me that she saw the sense in Alice's words. Deciding that arguing with her sister would get her nowhere, she instead turned her irritation to me.

_"It just _had_ to be this girl, didn't it? Over a century of living like a monk, and now you find yourself all horny for a crazy little human. I thought _you_ were supposed to be the sensible one."_

I rolled my eyes at her.

"It's just a passing curiosity, Rose. I'm sure that I'll lose interest within a couple of weeks."

"Maybe she's your mate," Emmett piped up. "Wouldn't that be ironic? Mr. Perfect here destined to be with a girl that's viewed as the devil incarnate by her classmates."

"Funny," I replied. I hopped to my feet and headed for the door. "If there's nothing else to discuss, I'm going hunting."

"I'll tag along," Jasper said. "You should talk to Carlisle about Isabella when he gets home. See if he has any ideas," he added to Alice, who nodded.

That decided, the two of us exited the house to hunt.

-*-

School the next day went much as the first had. We arrived, the other students tried to make conversation, and we ignored them. The only real difference was that I was always aware of Isabella's location, tuning into the other students' thoughts to see how she acted.

Carlisle hadn't been able to help us. Most of his knowledge of our world came from his time with the Volturi, and if they knew anything about humans that smelled like brimstone, then they hadn't told him. The only advice he could give us backed Alice's opinion that we should be wary of her until we knew more.

By the time lunch arrived, I was so sick of listening to the thoughts of teenage males that I was actually looking forward to an hour spent pretending to eat food. There's only so many times a man can see imagined images of his sisters naked before it gets to be too much, and Rosalie and Alice were the stars of many daydreams in various classes.

I arrived in the cafeteria to see that my siblings sat at the same table as the day before. Isabella and Angela were nowhere to be seen. I joined the lunch line and waited impatiently for my turn to grab some food.

"You know, you and your siblings should really learn to be a bit more polite. Angie and I were here first, which means we should get the table."

I almost jumped at the voice, not having heard Isabella join the line behind me. I spun around to look at her, and she gazed back, one dark brow raised in amusement. A red umbrella hung from her arm, and I looked at it in confusion. It wasn't raining at the moment, and even if she was, I knew Isabella had a hooded rain slicker. Why would she need an umbrella?

"Did I scare you?" she asked silkily. "I'd apologize, but it would be a lie. Everyone knows I like to scare people."

"You startled me a little. Why do you have an umbrella?" I asked.

"Nosy, aren't we? I happen to like my umbrella. I think it's stylish and a great fashion accessory." She looked over my shoulder. "You're holding up the line. Helga really hates it when people hold up the line."

I turned back to the lunch line, where a large, vicious looking woman was giving me a death glare. If I had still been a human, I probably would have been terrified of her.

"You order, or you leave," she rumbled at me, using her spatula to emphasize her point.

"Of course. I'll take the chicken salad sandwich," I said quickly, holding out my plate for the food.

"Is that actual chicken, Helga?" Bella asked, eyeing my sandwich cautiously.

"We're saying it is," Helga replied brusquely, but her voice was much nicer than when she had spoken to me. Apparently Isabella got along with the lunch lady, even if she didn't get along with her classmates.

"I think I'll just get a salad," Angela said from where she stood behind Isabella. She looked a little green as she examined the sandwich. "That special yesterday didn't agree with me."

"I'll have a ham sandwich… and a slice of that really gross pizza you guys make. I have plans for it." Isabella grinned wickedly and held her plate out to Helga.

"If you start a food fight, you'll clean it up," Helga informed her, even as she handed over the sandwich and pizza.

"Please, Helga. If I started a food fight, no one would fight back. Not unless you decided to start swinging out today's special. Everyone else is too afraid of me."

"The best way to be." Helga gave a sharp nod.

"Of course it is," Isabella agreed with a winning smile.

"I hate it when you smile," I heard Angela mutter. "Whenever you smile, it always means that small puppies are dying and Christmas is being cancelled."

I eyed the pair curiously, and Isabella turned her smile to me, but it had gained a sharp edge, and, for just a moment, I swore that her eyes were glowing red. Then she blinked, and they were once again dark, their color almost impossible to discern.

"So, are you going to move yourself and your siblings to a different table?" she asked me brightly, walking beside me as we left the lunch line.

"No. Why is it such a big deal?" I asked, stopping and turning so that I stood between her and my siblings' table. "Alice said that Jessica was panicking and saying that you were going to do something to Rose for talking back to you."

Isabella laughed. To a human's ears it would have sounded light-hearted and happy, but I could hear the ice beneath its surface, and it sent chills down my spine. Next to Isabella, Angela gave a shiver. Perhaps some humans could hear the ice as well.

"_Creepy… hurt them… what… into…"_

Angela's thoughts were still unintelligible, and I had to fight back a scowl.

"I'm not going to do anything to Rosalie," Isabella informed me. "I'm a firm believer in karma. Your sister will get what's coming to her with or without my interference." She glanced over my shoulder to where my family sat, and I thought that her eyes were maybe glowing red again, but Angela's thoughts distracted me before I could really look.

_"What is she doing?... not good… so much trouble… new."_

I heard a loud shriek come from the direction of my siblings' table, and spun around to see that Rosalie had leapt away from her chair and was patting feverishly at her now smoking jeans. Her purse, which had been sitting at her feet, was covered in bright orange flames. There was a crash behind me, and I turned towards it just as the fire sprinklers went off, drenching me and everyone else in the cafeteria.

Everyone except Isabella and Angela, who stood safely beneath the cover of the red umbrella. The bang must have been the sound of Isabella's tray hitting the floor as she opened the umbrella just before the sprinklers went off.

"Like I said," Isabella said, her voice soft and dangerous. "Karma."

And this time, I knew that I wasn't imagining the red glow in her eyes.

_**A/N2: As you've probably guessed by reading this chapter, the POV will alternate between Bella and Edward. It's important, as the characters are going to be changing and both POVs are required so that people won't be going 'WTF?' If Edward ends up doing something evil and totally out of character, you will be expecting it because you will have seen his character take that turn for the worse (or better, depending on who you're rooting for). I'm still a little torn on whether I'm going to take the expected "Bella gets redeemed" path or if I'm going to go with the crazy "Bella is evil and turns the Cullens evil too" path. The second one is really tempting, especially since one of my reviewers planted the thought of an evil Esme in my head. Tell me the image of Esme kicking ass and doing evil deeds isn't amazing, and I'll call you a liar.**_

_**For fans of GLH, the next chapter is almost done and will be up sometime this week. I know I said I would alternate updates, but this chapter was already done and just had to be sent to PTB when I posted chapter one.**_


	3. The Boy who Called Liar

_**A/N: And here we go with chapter 3:**_

**Three. The Boy Who Called Liar**

Setting Rosalie's bag on fire probably wasn't the best move I could have made. I needed to endear myself to the Cullen family, not antagonize them. Still, everyone knew that Rosalie had been a bitch to me the previous day, and everyone knew that when someone was a bitch to me, something bad _always_ happened to them.

I couldn't change that trend; people might start thinking it had all been a coincidence and actually try… _talking_ to me.

Getting revenge in that way hadn't been part of my plan, but the Cullens had been distracted as I had walked by, and it had been far too tempting an opportunity to pass up.

Resisting temptation had never been a strong suit of mine.

I wasn't able to summon fire from nothing, but it had been an easy enough endeavour to toss a match into Rosalie's purse. I had been told once that demons smelled like fire and had been sure that my scent would cover that of the match. My assumptions had proven correct. Once I was away from the table, it was an easy enough matter to take control of the flame from the match.

A single spark was all it took for me to cause an inferno. Spreading the flame around Rosalie's purse had been like child's play.

"I didn't know you could do that," Angela said to me quietly once we had left behind Edward Cullen and the rest of the student body in the cafeteria to get soaked by the sprinklers.

"It's a pity that I lost the pizza," I sighed, completely ignoring Angela. "I was going to get Yorkie to work his chemist genius on it. I have a theory that it's only a few ingredients away from plastic, and I wanted him to prove me right."

"Bella," Angela's voice was becoming panicked now. "I _really_ didn't know you could do that. What else can you do? When did your… abilities start growing?"

"I don't like people who ask questions, Angela," I replied simply, closing my umbrella now that it had served its purpose. "I suggest you stop asking them." I mentally snorted at her. I was the daughter of Satan, did she really think I didn't have a few more abilities than the average human?

"I think I have a right to know!" Angela hissed. "This isn't a game anymore, and stuff like that is danger-"

"It was only ever a game to you, Angela," I interrupted her coolly. "I told you yesterday that you're free to back away at any time. I let you use me to rebel against your daddy because it amuses me, _not_ because I feel any sort of affection for you. _I owe you nothing_. Remember that."

"What should Angela remember?" Edward Cullen's silky voice cut through the tense air between Angela and me. For a long moment neither of us looked at him. Angela was trying to show her defiance, and I refused to let her win. At last, she looked away so that she could address Edward. I smirked in victory.

"We're supposed to meet to work on our English homework together. I had almost forgotten," Angela replied, lying through her teeth. She may not want to be involved with me, but she wasn't going to out me either. Not only would no one believe her, but she knew that I would simply get rid of anyone that she might be able to convince.

I wasn't into murder for murder's sake, but I was willing to kill to keep my comfortable life here in Forks. The uprooting of my whole life would be irritating.

"I see." Edward's expression said quite clearly that he did in fact see. He saw that the excuse was complete and utter bullshit. "Well, I'm sure it's very fascinating, but I need to steal Bella from you for a moment."

"Oh… well… I guess I'll see you both in Biology." Angela looked at me briefly, her expression alarmed, before she headed for her locker to retrieve her books.

"Trying to get me alone?" I smirked at Edward, trying to project a cockiness that I didn't entirely feel. What did he want to talk with me about?

"You're rather arrogant, aren't you?" he asked me. "Do you assume that all males want you or just me?" Edward turned his back to me for a moment, and my smirk became the real deal. I was getting to him. "That was rude. I'm sorry. Esme raised me far better than that."

"No problem," I replied easily. "And to answer your question… if it has boobs, chances are that the majority of teenage males want it. I think it's part of the whole 'boy' thing. But you're different, aren't you?" I eyed him closely, hoping to keep him off balance. "Jessica is planning the best way to seduce you. I thought I'd give you a heads up."

"I know," Edward replied automatically. His eyes widened slightly, so slightly that I wouldn't have noticed if I hadn't been looking for a reaction. "I mean… Alice mentioned something about it. She heard Jessica talking in the bathroom I guess."

"Uh-huh," I replied, making sure that my expression stated that I clearly wasn't buying what he was trying to sell. "Well, I can help you with your Jessica problem if you'd like." I leaned up against the lockers and surveyed Edward, raising an eyebrow at him in question.

"And how would you help me?" Edward asked, raising his own brow and leaning his shoulder against the locker next to me.

"I don't know if you've noticed, but I have the amazing ability to make people fear me. I could have Jessica off your back like that." I snapped my fingers. "Of course, I don't do anything for free. You'd owe me."

"Owe you, hey?" Edward smirked down at me. "Sort like how you decided you owed Rose for standing up to you yesterday?"

I gave a laugh, easily hiding my nervousness behind a mask of deceit. I was good at that; yet another talent that came with being the Anti-Christ.

"You must think me greatly talented. To be able to start a fire from twenty feet away while having a conversation with you. I think I feel flattered that you think so highly of my abilities." I tapped my umbrella against his chest and smiled flirtatiously. "Sadly, I'll have to let you down. I can do many things, but conjuring fire is not one of them."

I loved it when I could put someone off my trail without even lying. It was always so much more fun than blatant deceit.

"It's a rather large coincidence, Isabella." Edward whirled around, his arms coming to rest on either side of my head, effectively caging me against the lockers. The move was just this side of being too fast for a human, and I wondered if he wasn't trying to lull me into a false sense of confidence by hinting that he maybe wasn't entirely normal himself, so I had no reason to hide my own abnormalities. If so, it wasn't working. "Come on, Isabella, tell me how you did it. I'm curious."

As he spoke, he leaned down so that our faces were just inches apart and his cool breath fanned across my face. Normally such an action would be disgusting, but with Edward his breath smelled exceptionally good, and his eyes were so earnest that a part of me actually yearned to tell him everything—who I was, what I was supposed to do. Everything.

I closed my eyes against the desire, forcefully pushing up the hardened walls that had surrounded me since my introduction to Hell at the age of four. In that world, weakness got you killed. I refused to be weak.

"You seem to have a hearing impediment," I stated calmly, re-opening my eyes. "I told you, I cannot conjure fire. I'm not some sort of mystical witch, Edward. Rosalie had a freak accident; it was just a coincidence that it occurred the day after our little argument. The bell is about to ring, so please back off."

Edward didn't step back immediately. He stood in front of me, his golden eyes staring into mine, as if he could somehow see through them to my soul. I found myself remembering the old saying that the eyes are the windows to the soul. I hoped it was just an old wives' tale, because if it were true, then Edward would be seeing every skeleton in my closet with how hard he was staring into my eyes.

"This isn't over," he murmured, pulling back from me as the warning bell rang and students began to exit the cafeteria.

"Of course it's not, Edward." I smirked and looked at him from under my eyelashes. His expression turned to confusion. "It's only just beginning."

I walked away from him as his siblings joined him. Rosalie glared at me, and Jasper's eyes were filled with distrust, and I remembered that he was an empath. I wondered what he was feeling from me. Mentally shrugging, I ignored Rose and gave Jasper an innocent smile. He frowned at me, but soon turned away as a freshman walked by too closely. His nostrils flared, and his eyes darkened.

I smirked and walked away from the family, a plan already forming in my mind.

-*-

That night Charlie called to tell me that he had to work late, and would be spending the night at the station. I wondered why he called. It's not like either of us were under the illusion that the other cared. Charlie kept me around in memory of the woman he had loved, and I stayed because I needed a guardian of some sort until I turned eighteen.

I was counting down the days until that birthday.

Deciding to forego supper, I entered my room and sat on the edge of my bed, surveying my reflection in my vanity mirror closely as I thought about the plan that I had been fleshing out all day.

"Jasper is the weakest," I told my reflection. "Every time a human passes too closely, you can practically see the blood lust in his eyes. That's where we need to start."

I watched as my reflection contorted. Pale skin became red with stark black tattoos. The dark brown hair darkened to black, and vicious horns appeared on either side of the reflection's head.

For a normal human, a reflection is just a reflection. For a demon, even a half demon like me, the reflection is a gateway to the demonic nature.

"I'm surprised you didn't make an appearance earlier," I commented idly, quirking my head to look at the demon staring back at me. I hadn't learned how to take on the form in the real world, but I often conversed with my demonic side in my mirror.

"Even humans would notice if a horned demon appeared in the mirror at school," the reflection replied, her voice a more guttural, animalistic version of my own.

"Are you sure? Humans can be rather clueless at times." I leaned back on the bed and rested my weight on my forearms.

"You plan to go after the blonde male first," the reflection said, changing the subject.

"Yes. Why are you asking? You know my thoughts as well as I do. You _are_ me after all."

The reflection laughed, and it was a sound that would instil fear in the heart of anyone else.

"Sometimes it helps to plan it out loud. I'm just offering my services."

I snorted at that. It was impossible for the reflection to lie to me, and vice versa. No matter what some people say, it's impossible to lie to yourself.

"We aren't helpful," I told the reflection dryly. "Trying to lie to yourself… that's a new low, even for us."

The reflection huffed and crossed her arms. I rolled my eyes at that. My demonic side was a bit of a drama queen.

"Jasper is the weakest," I said at last, deciding to try out the reflection's idea. "He's the weak link in the Cullen family." I pulled a deck of cards out of my desk and approached the dresser and vanity mirror. I pulled the cards out and began to create a house. "At first, I thought this mission would be impossible. A vampire who's a doctor? Impossible. But this morning a thought occurred to me, so I watched the Cullens today."

"And what was your conclusion?" the reflection asked, eyeing the house curiously.

"You haven't guessed yet? Come on, think real hard. We _are_ the same being, after all."

The reflection met my eyes, narrowing her own as she thought. After a moment, she began to smirk. I smirked back; identical expressions on very different faces.

"The Cullens are like a house of cards," I concluded when the reflection's laughter had died. "You take out one"—I pulled a single card from the house—"And you take out them all. Jasper is going to be my card."

"And then the whole family will come tumbling down. How do you plan to make him give in?"

"Do you really have to ask?"

This time, the eerie laughter came with the reflection's smirk. She knew all right, and we both knew that Jasper wouldn't know what had hit him.

_**A/N2: Well, now you've seen some of Bella's powers, and the beginnings of a plan. Thanks to everyone who has reviewed, favorited, or story alerted this. If anyone is interested, I am on Twitter as LynyrdLionheart. I post story quotes and other fun stuff on there and also enjoy hearing from readers and answering any questions. **_


	4. The Girl who had Secrets

_**A/N: And we return with the fourth chapter. Bella's evil plot begins in this chapter, and the Cullens are left to try and figure out exactly what it is she's doing, and how she's doing it. Enjoy:**_

**Four. The Girl Who Had Secrets**

_"He's having trouble today."_

It was lunch once again and I had been staring so hard at Isabella, determined to hear something from her mind, that I almost missed Alice's thought. I looked away from Isabella and looked at Jasper, obviously the "he" Alice had been speaking of. I felt a pang of shame. I had been so caught up in the mystery of Isabella Swan that I had almost forgotten to keep tabs on Jasper's thoughts. I _always_ kept tabs on Jasper's thoughts; it was one of the most helpful things I could do for the family.

_"Have to resist. Think about Carlisle, about Alice, about the whole family."_

Jasper was sitting next to Alice, his gaze focused on the desk in front of him. His brow was furrowed, and his hands were gripping the table tightly. I was surprised he hadn't broken anything yet; his control was that frayed.

_"Just one nibble. It can be passed off as an animal. No one will know."_

I frowned at the thought. It sounded like Jasper, yet… not. Over the years I had become so used to the… _flavour_ of my family's thoughts that I could pick them out of a group of a thousand minds. This voice _sounded_ like Jasper, but there was something off about it. It reminded me of when Emmett would impersonate Carlisle's voice. It _sounded _almost perfect, but there was something off in the pronunciation and flow of the words.

"Jasper!" I said sharply, too quiet for human ears, but loudly enough to catch Jasper's attention. "You can resist it. Concentrate!"

Jasper looked at me, his expression a little dazed. That was odd. As a rule, vampires were rarely, if ever, dazed. A furrow appeared between Jasper's brows for a moment, before he shook his head and his eyes cleared.

"Yeah. You're right. Thanks Edward."

The five of us got up as one unit and headed to discard our untouched food in the garbage bin. As we walked, my gaze once again travelled to Isabella.

She was holding an apple in her hand, her gaze fixed on Jasper, and a contemplative look on her face. As if she could sense my eyes on her, she turned hers away from Jasper to look at me. Raising an eyebrow, she took a large bite out of the apple and gave me a close-mouthed grin.

For the first time since I had been turned, I felt a shiver run down my spine.

When we had arrived home the previous day, Rose had immediately declared that there was obviously something seriously wrong and twisted with Isabella Swan. She had decided that only Isabella could have been responsible for the bonfire that her bag had become.

"It was Louis Vuitton!" She had declared angrily. "And that… that… _bitch_ just lit it on fire like it was a bag from the Wal-Mart half off display!"

Personally I didn't see that big of a difference between the Louis Vuitton purse and a Wal-Mart rip-off, but saying anything along those lines hadn't seemed like a good idea at the time.

"Let's say she is responsible for it," Jasper had replied, sitting on the loveseat, where he was shortly joined by Alice. "How did she do it? If we can discover the how, then maybe we can figure out exactly _what_ she is."

That's what I wanted to know. What exactly was Isabella Swan, and why was she taking such an interest in my family?

"Hey, Edward."

I sighed and rolled my eyes heavenward as I was pulled from my musings by Jessica Stanley who had sidled up to me.

"Hello, Jessica," I replied with all the good manners that Esme had instilled in me.

"So, Mike's having a party this weekend." Jessica looked at me from under fluttering eyelashes in a way that I thought was supposed to be seductive. It came out looking like she had something in her eye. "You should totally come."

Yes, because attending a high school party was _exactly_ what I felt like doing with my spare time. I had been dragged to a few by Emmett over the years, but even he had grown tired of watching a bunch of teenagers drink until they were sick. Apparently it was amusing when you were drunk, but vampires were incapable of becoming intoxicated, so the whole thing just came out as being rather disgusting.

"I'm not really into parties, Jessica," I replied, still polite, but very distant, hoping she'd take the hint. Apparently hints didn't work very well with Jessica, because she just moved in closer, so that her chest rubbed against my arm.

"But everyone goes to Mike's parties," Jessica purred in a way that was meant to be sexy, but just came out sounding like she had a cold.

"Did I hear you mention a party?" Alice danced up to us. "I love parties!"

"Oh… yeah." Jessica turned her attention to Alice, obviously sensing an ally in my sister. "They're, like, the biggest events of school year. Mike's parents always leave town for a few days every other month and Mike throws these amazing parties. They're great."

"We'll be there!" Alice promised with a large smile. "Now, if you'll excuse us, I have to borrow my brother for a few moments."

Alice grasped my arm in an almost painful grip and dragged me towards the doors leading to the parking lot.

"What are you thinking, Alice?" I hissed, too quietly for mortal ears. "You haven't enjoyed parties since the eighties and the grunge look ruined them for you."

_"Think about it, Edward,"_ Alice thought in reply. _"Jessica says _everybody_ goes. This could be our chance to get Isabella to spill what she's up to. And she'll be there, because I can't see anything about the party. It's all black."_

"And how will we get Isabella to 'spill' at the party?" I raised an eyebrow at Alice. "She isn't exactly loose-lipped."

_"You'll get her drunk, of course!"_

"Me? What makes you think I'll be able to get her drunk?"

_"Jasper says the attraction you feel for her is mutual. High school boys often try to get the girls they're interested in drunk. It won't be suspicious if you do it with Bella. She'll assume you just want to get lucky."_

I winced at Alice's mention of my attraction to Isabella. Despite the fact that her best friend was obviously terrified of her, and Isabella herself might be a pyromaniac, I hadn't been able to get rid of the attraction I'd felt since the first day. If anything, the mystery surrounding her had increased the pull I felt. It wasn't safe; what she was could endanger my family, had already endangered Rose, but I couldn't seem to push the feelings aside.

It was irritating. Normally any attraction I felt was killed by the thoughts I heard, but I couldn't hear Isabella. I growled at the thought.

"I wouldn't count on my abilities," I murmured to Alice. "Do you really think it will be that easy to get to her?"

_"Why wouldn't it? As far as she knows, we're just human teenagers. Now that she's gotten revenge on Rose, she shouldn't be overly interested in the rest of us. She'll let her guard down."_

I thought of the way that Isabella had watched Jasper, as if she were waiting for something, and I wasn't nearly as sure of Alice's prediction that Isabella suspected nothing.

"I think she knows." I paused for a moment, deep in thought. "Or at least suspects."

_"What?!"_ Alice's head snapped to me, her expression alarmed.

"At lunch she was watching Jasper… and… I don't know. There was this look in her eye. It was similar to her look when Rose's purse set off the fire alarms. She knew something then, and her look at lunch said she knows something about Jasper now. I think she's more than just not human, Alice. I think she's genuinely dangerous."

And why did that send a thrill of anticipation through me? I wasn't the type to look for thrills, yet the thought of Bella being dangerous… it did things to me that it shouldn't.

Alice wasn't an empath like Jasper, or a mind reader like me, but her expression as she looked at me told me that she knew exactly what I was thinking and feeling and she didn't like it at all.

"Text the others. We're skipping the rest of class—I think it's time we had a family meeting about Miss Isabella Swan."

-*-

"What is this about, Alice?" Carlisle asked the second we walked through the door. "I had to pretend to be sick to be able to come here. You know I hate playing sick."

"We wouldn't have asked if it wasn't important, Carlisle. You know that," Alice replied, taking a seat on the loveseat. Jasper sat next to her. Rosalie and Emmett sat next to Esme on the couch, while Carlisle perched on the arm next to her. That left me to sprawl out on the recliner, which I did.

"It's about Isabella Swan, apparently," Rosalie sneered. "I don't understand why it couldn't wait. Besides her tendency towards pyromania, I don't see how she could possibly be dangerous to us."

"Edward thinks she's planning something," Alice explained, ignoring Rosalie. "He said that she was watching Jasper at lunch, as if she were waiting for something."

"Do you think she knows?" Jasper looked alarmed. "Is there some way she could know what we are and that I'm having… difficulties?"

"But how could a human know about us?" Esme asked, looking as alarmed at the thought as Jasper.

"We haven't determined if she's human or not," I replied. "Have you ever known a human to be able to start a fire when standing yards away?"

"Are you sure it was her?" Carlisle asked, ever the voice of reason. "Perhaps it was a freak event?"

"She had an umbrella," I argued. "She knew exactly what was going to happen, and she was prepared. She's not trying to hide that she's not normal, but nothing she does tells us what she is."

"You've still had no luck reading Angela Weber's thoughts, then?"

I shook my head at Carlisle's question.

"It's all garbled. I can get words, but not enough to really tell me anything. Everyone else in the school knows there's something weird about Isabella, but they all assume she's anti-social and a bit violent. I read the school psychiatrist's thoughts. Bella had to go through mandatory therapy last year, but she seemed completely normal during the meetings. The psychiatrist thinks she's little on the morbid and aggressive side, but nothing that hasn't been seen in dozens of students before."

"How can anyone think there's nothing wrong with that girl?" Rosalie demanded, outraged. "It's obvious she's completely psychotic!"

"What could she possibly want with me?" Jasper groaned, ignoring Rosalie's rant. "I haven't spoken a word to the girl."

_"I need to hunt tonight."_

_ "Why settle for animals? Human blood is so much sweeter. No one has to ever know… they can just disappear."_

I frowned at Jasper's thoughts. The echo had returned.

"Jasper… are you okay?" I asked, and Alice looked at her husband with an alarmed expression. Her hand went to his knee and she squeezed it in a show of support.

"I'm sorry. It's just the struggle. It's been worse lately."

"There's something going on in your thoughts," I told him. "They sound like you, but at the same time they don't."

"That makes absolutely _no_ sense, Edward," Rosalie sneered. "It either sounds like Jasper or it doesn't."

"It's difficult to explain, Rose. It's like when you hear someone do a really good impersonation. It sounds just like the person they're impersonating, but at the same time there's just something… off."

My words caused Carlisle to frown. He eyed Jasper warily, his chin resting on his palm.

"That does trouble me," he admitted. "Have you noticed anything off, besides the fact that you've been struggling to keep from drinking human blood?"

Jasper shook his head.

"Hmmm…" Carlisle leaned back and settled his hand on Esme's shoulder. Esme reached up and placed her hand over his, squeezing it.

"Maybe… maybe we should consider taking action against Isabella," she said, her voice soft. We all looked at her in surprise. Esme very rarely advocated any form of violence. She shrugged at our looks. "If she's a danger to us, then we have to consider all our options."

"We don't know for sure that Isabella has anything to do with Jasper," I argued quickly. "Maybe she's just observant and noticed his strain. It could have been curiosity."

"You were positive she knew something when you were talking to me at school," Alice replied, her gaze shrewd as she looked at me. Alice saw right through me; I didn't want any harm to come to Isabella.

"I've been known to be wrong upon occasion," I told Alice stiffly, ignoring her knowing look. "Without my ability to read her thoughts, I'm running blind when it comes to Isabella."

"And that's the crux of the matter, isn't it?" Carlisle asked. "We're all running blind with both your and Alice's powers not working on this girl. Jasper can tell us her emotions, but unless we know _why_ she's feeling them, we don't know anything."

"Then Esme is right," Rosalie stated. She was staring at her reflection in a compact mirror, which she snapped shut when she saw all of our eyes were on her. "Isabella is obviously dangerous. All of you are positive she's not human, I'm positive she's the one who lit my purse on fire. She's a threat to us. Why should we just sit back and let ourselves be threatened?" Rosalie leaned back and opened the mirror once more. "It's not as if anyone would miss her if we _did_ kill her. Hell, if they knew we did it they'd probably give us a medal. It's not like anyone likes her." I growled deep in my chest and Rosalie's eyes snapped up to mine. She smirked. "Oh, sorry. Let me rephrase: It's not like anyone, _except Edward_, likes her. What will you do, little brother, if your crush gets us all killed?"

I growled again, but looked away. I didn't have an answer to Rosalie's question. All I knew was that I didn't want Isabella harmed, not without hard proof.

"There's no need to act now," Alice piped up, playing the peace-keeper. "Mike Newton is having a party this weekend, and we are all going to attend. Edward will feed Isabella drinks to get information out of her, and the rest of us will see what we can get from the rest of the crowd, particularly Angela Weber. There's no need to act until we're sure that we have no other choice."

"And do you think getting _Edward_ to interrogate Isabella is the best idea?" Rose snorted delicately at the thought. "He's besotted with her. He can't be trusted on this."

"That's enough, Rose," Carlisle cut in, his voice hard. "Edward is a member of this family, and that means we trust him. He won't put us in danger. Fighting amongst ourselves won't help, especially when we don't know _anything_ about this girl. For all we know she's a regular human and you're all just being paranoid. No one will _touch_ Isabella until we have hard proof that she poses some sort of threat to our family. Am I clear?"

"Yes Carlisle," we all said, though Rosalie's expression was petulant as she gave her promise.

"Good. Now if that's all, Esme and I need to speak privately with Edward for a moment. Maybe the rest of you should go hunting." Carlisle's gaze rested on Jasper. "It's always better to be safe than sorry."

_"I'm worried about you, son. This is something we need to talk about. If this girl really is dangerous, then you should maybe avoid her."_

I sat in silence, refusing to acknowledge Carlisle's thought in front of everyone else. The others got up and left, but not without Emmett giving Carlisle a curious look, and Rosalie scowling at us all. She hated to be left out of the loop.

Once I was sure they were all out of ear shot, I got to my feet and began to pace.

"She's magnetic, Carlisle. I know I shouldn't have anything to do with her, shouldn't _want_ to have anything to do with her, yet I can't seem to ignore her. Maybe it's because I can't read her thoughts. Angela Weber's may be unclear, but they're still there. For Isabella… it's just blank. Maybe it's simple curiosity."

"Do you really believe that, Edward?" Esme asked her voice soft.

"No," I replied simply. "But I hope that if I keep telling myself that, then maybe I'll stop wanting to know everything about her. I'm sure she's dangerous; I'm even sure she was involved in setting Rose's purse on fire, but I can't help but want to be close to her anyways. It's like she's heroin and I'm an addict. I can't help but want to be near her, to have another hit."

"That sounds like obsession, Edward." Carlisle's forehead was creased in worry. "Maybe you should leave for a while. Out of sight, out of mind."

"I can't," I replied immediately. When both Esme and Carlisle frowned at me, I rolled my eyes. "With Jasper being so close to the edge, you need me around. We can't be sure that Alice's visions will work, especially if, somehow, Bella is behind the weird thoughts I'm hearing." I hoped to God that wasn't the case. With Rose's purse no one had been hurt, but if she was trying to make Jasper kill someone…

"He's right, Carlisle," Esme said. "As much as I hate having him around this Isabella, we do need to know if Jasper is going to snap. That means we need him to stay."

Carlisle sighed heavily and rubbed his forehead, much as a human with a migraine would.

"Stick to Alice's plan, and try to get something out of Isabella. I'll see what gossip I can get at the hospital. I don't like this. Who, or what, is this girl? And what does she want with our family?"

"I don't know," I responded honestly.

As I left Carlisle and Esme to speak on what they would, I decided that I would find out. Isabella had a secret, or several secrets, and I wanted to know what each and every one of them was.

Now I just had to figure out the best way to get a girl drunk.

_**A/N2: And that is chapter four. So, what do you think Bella's plan is, and how is she doing it? I want to hear your theories people! I have begun a blog: lynyrdplace (dot) blogspot (dot) com. I will be posting teasers and other stuff I feel like writing about there. If you follow me on Twitter, I will be saying when I post teasers and chapters, so remember to follow me. **_

_**Let me know what you think, and thanks to everyone who has favorited/reviewed/alerted so far.**_


	5. The Boy who Sucked at Hockey

_**A/N: I'm back! After a long wait, I have finally updated this lovely little story. Please enjoy:**_

**Five. The Boy who Sucked at Hockey**

Parties had never really been my scene. It was a characteristic that separated me from other demons. Parties were full of sin and vice and drunken idiots just waiting to be manipulated into doing something particularly deviant. It was an environment that the denizens of Hell flourished in. My father informed me that my dislike of such behaviour came from my human side and that as soon as that part of me died and allowed my demonic nature full control I would begin to flourish in those environments as well.

He got rather angry when he realized I had no intention of just letting my human side disappear. Being only half demon meant that, while I could access Hell, I wasn't tied there. Unlike the thousands of demons and damned souls that inhabited my father's domain, I was free to ignore his commands if I so wished.

It was a situation that infuriated the King of Hell. I, on the other hand, enjoyed the ever living shit out of it. After all, what teenager wants to be forced into servitude to their father?

So, for as long as I retained my human half, I would dislike parties, at least that was how the logic worked. That's why I was ensconced firmly in the corner of Mike Newton's kitchen, with a whiskey sour held in my hand like a life line instead of joining in the drunken revelry that surrounded me while a Lady Gaga song blared above the loud noise of the party-goers.

"Bella, you should come and dance with me!" Mike Newton wrapped his arm around my shoulder and tried to manoeuvre me to the make-shift dance floor that had been created in his living room. I dug in my heels and grasped his arm to lift it off my shoulders, wincing at the smell of booze and sweat that was emanating from him.

"I don't dance unless I'm plastered and the guy who's asking is worth it," I stated, shoving his arm into his stomach. "And so far it's running zero for two. Back off, Newton."

When inebriated, people were less afraid of me. That was just one of the many reasons parties didn't appeal to me. I wouldn't have made an appearance tonight, except that I had plans that I needed to proceed with. Not only was there a good chance the Cullens would show up, thus allowing me to continue to work my magic with them, but there was also a secluded clearing just a few metres into the forest out back where I could go to accomplish my other business.

"C'mon, Bells. Don't be like that."

Mike didn't seem to be able to take a hint, and I wondered how many beers he'd had to drink before he mustered the balls to approach me for a dance.

"Now, Mike, she said she didn't feel like dancing." I raised an eyebrow and felt my lips quirk in amusement as Edward Cullen sidled between Mike and me, carefully manoeuvring us so that Mike was a good two feet away from me. "I saw Jessica earlier. I am fairly certain that she was looking for you."

"I'll go find her, then. Jess knows how to have a good time." Mike gave me a dirty look. "Good luck with that one, Cullen. She's a frigid bitch, even when she's drunk."

I gave Mike a sweet grin and waggled my fingers at him. His reply was a loud belch that made me wince in disgust as he walked away.

"Before you decide to test Mike's frigid bitch theory, I should probably warn you that I'm not that drunk." I looked up at Edward from underneath my eyelashes and smiled flirtatiously. "Although, I'm not sure I'd have to be for you."

"Oh, really?" Edward gave me a crooked grin that caused my breath to catch in my throat. I had taken a seat on a bar stool by the kitchen counter, and Edward took advantage of my position to rest his hands on the counter and lean into me so that there was hardly an inch between our bodies. I felt my throat go dry as I stared into his mesmerizing toffee eyes. This was a different Edward from the one who sat uncomfortably next to me in Biology and tried to ignore my thinly veiled innuendos by making small talk about the weather.

This was a flirtatious Edward, and he was a dangerous creature.

"No, not really," I replied a little uneasily, glancing around for an escape route. There was none. Between my position on the stool and the way Edward's arms caged me, I was thoroughly trapped. "I was just flirting. Usually, you don't flirt back."

"An oversight on my part, I believe." Edward moved an inch closer. "Your blush is quite lovely when you're uneasy, did you know that?"

"No," I retorted shortly, placing my hands firmly on Edward's chest to keep him from coming any closer. I had to fight back the urge to run my hands down the length of his body to see if all his muscles were as firm as the ones on which my hands rested. "I've never been uneasy before. It turns out that invasion of my personal bubble makes me uneasy, another thing that's never happened to me before."

"I find it hard to believe that no male from Forks has ever made the attempt. Are they blind?" Edward gave me a crooked grin, and I mentally cursed myself as I felt my breath catch at the sight.

"You're surprisingly good at that," I commented, giving his chest a firm shove. Edward took a step back, still unwilling to give up his human act. I felt my confidence return with the distance I had put between us.

"What am I good at?" Edward asked, resting his hands on the table behind him.

"Flirting. I would have never guessed you had a hidden talent for it. As it is, I'm a frigid bitch who doesn't eat up flattery like the Jessica Stanleys of the world. All the adolescent boys around here know that, so they don't bother entering my personal bubble." I moved away, putting the counter between us, hiding my manoeuvre by pretending to survey the selection of alcohol set out on the counter. "What would you like to drink?"

"I don't drink," Edward replied easily, his amused expression telling me that he knew exactly what I was up to. My face remained smooth, but inside I was scowling at him. He knew he had me off balance, and he was enjoying every second in which he was getting the better of me.

That was _not_ acceptable.

"Everyone drinks at these things, Edward," I said, re-filling my cup before sauntering towards him. "It's a rite of passage or something. Here, you can try mine."

I held the cup to his lips, and smirked at him. He stared down at me and I was positive that I had won this round, but to my surprise his hand came up to cover mine and he tipped the cup back, sending some of the contents down his throat.

"Is that enough to satisfy your rite of passage?" he asked smoothly, righting the cup once more, but not releasing my hand. I found myself unwillingly impressed by his ability to not grimace at the alcohol, and I wondered if he'd disappear at some point to purge his stomach.

"For now," I replied, giving him a small smile and pulling my hand away from his carefully. "Did your whole family choose to grace us with their presences, or just you?"

"The others are around here somewhere, but really Bella"—Edward smiled down at me charmingly—"do you really care about my siblings? There are so many more… interesting topics we could cover."

"Flirting really only works when you have a history of it, Edward," I responded dryly. "I'm not so stupid as to think that you've suddenly grown interested in me when you've either ignored or been discomfited by my presence up until now. What is it you're after?"

I was fairly certain I knew the answer to my question; he wanted to know what had happened that day in the cafeteria when I had lit Rosalie's purse on fire. Still, I hoped being confrontational might put him off balance and allow me the upper hand.

Sadly, I greatly underestimated Edward's abilities to flirt when he had his mind set to it.

"Flirting in a public area surrounded by our classmates and aging biology teacher isn't my style, Isabella." He leaned down, his lips grazing my ears, and his voice a low purr. "I prefer privacy, myself."

I felt my breath catch as his cool lips lingered briefly on my ear before he pulled back slightly. I raised my cup to my lips with a slightly shaky hand and tossed back the contents of the cup.

"Here, let me get you a re-fill." Edward took the cup from my hands and glided to the make shift bar, grabbing the bottles he needed.

"I like extra lime," I told his back, allowing myself to scowl at how easily he had thrown me off my game. _I_ was in control of this game, and I didn't like that Edward was trying to change that.

"Here"—Edward returned to my side once more—"I hope it's _strong_ enough for you."

I snatched the cup from his hand and took a deep drink. Most mortals would be using the alcohol to fortify themselves, but my demonic nature meant an increased metabolism. I was a long way from being affected by the alcohol, so I used the imbibing to rally my thoughts and decide on my next plan of action.

"How is it?" Edward asked, raising an eyebrow at me, his hand coming up to play with the skin that barely peeked out between my tank top and jeans.

I wasn't sure what game he was playing, but I knew I needed to figure it out, and the best way to do that was to play along, so I leaned into him and gave him my most seductive smile- a smile that had once led an Incubus to risk my father's wrath if he could only get a few moments of pleasure with me.

"Strong and sour… just how I like it," I breathed, resting my hand on his chest. It was hard and muscular, just like I suspected the rest of him was. "Want to dance?"

"Whatever the lady wants," Edward replied smoothly.

"Great." I reached out and snagged the arm of Angela as she sauntered past me. "Angie, Edward wants to dance. Won't you be his partner?"

Angela looked like she was going to argue, but my expression must have warned her that such an action would not end well for her. Instead, she plastered a fake smile onto her face.

"Of course. C'mon, Edward. I happen to love this song."

Edward's lips were pressed in a tight line, but he followed Angela to the mass of writhing bodies on the 'dance floor,' too polite to refuse, even though I had forced him into the situation. I allowed myself a small secretive smile as I watched them move away.

The girl still had it.

I managed to avoid Edward for the next hour, but he found me once more near the beer pong tables, which served as both a good and an entertaining hiding place.

Usually.

"That was a nasty trick you pulled," he breathed into my ear, his hand coming up to rest in the small of my back as he pretended to be engrossed in watching Tyler Crowley's spectacularly terrible pong skills. "It also leads me to think that you're hiding something. Something you're afraid I'll get out of you."

"Or it could mean that I'm just not that into you. Have you ever spoken to anyone about these narcissistic tendencies of yours? There's probably a medication for it."

"What are you, Isabella Swan? Show me yours, and I'll show you mine."

I smirked at his words and turned so our bodies were flush together. His eyes flashed dark, which caused my smirk to become sinister.

"Listen closely, Edward Cullen," I murmured, pulling him down by his shirt collar so our lips were inches apart. "You have _nothing_ to show me that I'm interested in, or don't already know. Who I am, or what I am, is of no consequence to you."

"You're entirely too cocky," he replied. "What would it take to get under your skin? To your heart?"

"More than you have. My heart is untouchable."

"So you think." His eyes darkened more. "I'm willing to bet otherwise."

Then he kissed me.

And what a kiss it was.

Edward didn't hold back, and I wondered exactly how thin I had worn his control. I didn't think that, had he been in his right mind, he would have been kissing me with this much abandon. One of his arms held me close to his body, while the other wound its way into my hair, holding our lips together. I tried to stay unaffected, to coldly analyze the kiss and my effect on the vampire Adonis giving it to me, but that became impossible when he teased my lips open with his cool tongue.

Giving into lust, I wound my hands into his hair and kissed him back wildly. I revelled in the sensation of his body against mine, the feel of his lips, and even the feeling of the wall behind me as he spun us around and pressed me into it.

I'm not sure how far we would have gone if it hadn't been for the drunken Tyler Crowley giving a loud wolf whistle.

"Way to go, Cullen. Maybe Swan is finally gonna open her legs for someone."

Tyler's words brought me back to Earth with a resounding smack, and I shoved Edward away from me. The way he stumbled back and the dazed expression on his face let me know that, even though he was trying to get information from me, I had exactly the same effect on Edward as he did on me. It made me feel a little bit better, but not much.

I was the Anti-Christ, dammit! I did not get _caught up_, yet if I hadn't been caught up in lust, then how could I explain the way I had been considering tearing Edward's clothes off right there in the Newton's game room?

I shoved his chest hard, and Edward stumbled back looking into my eyes with shock. I spun around, closing my eyes tightly in an attempt to get my libido under control once more.

"Bella… your eyes…" I felt Edward's hand land on my shoulder and quickly shrugged it off. I knew what had caused the shock. Strong emotions brought my demonic nature to the forefront, and when that occurred, my eyes always glowed eerily, inhumanly red.

"I have to go to the washroom," I lied through my teeth. "My eyes are sensitive. I forgot to use my drops."

I didn't wait for Edward to reply. I rushed to the nearest washroom and barred myself inside, pacing back and forth across the short length from the door to the wall.

"You're letting him get under your skin. We _never_ let anyone get under our skin."

I glared at my reflection. It raised a single dark eyebrow at me and its red eyes glowed mischievously. Of course the demon was amused. Anything that caused chaos amused demons.

"I'm _your_ demonic side," the reflection pointed out dryly, hearing my thoughts. "Don't allow that pesky human side of you to get in the way. We have a job to do."

"I have a job to do, you mean," I snapped back.

"I _am_ you, Isabella. Any job you have belongs to me as well."

"Then help out a bit! Where were you when Edward was dry humping me against a wall?"

The reflection laughed its low, sinister laugh.

"I was enjoying it. Lust is an emotion that demons are _very _familiar with." The reflections expression became harsh and serious. "Just make sure that it doesn't become anything _more_ than lust. That human side of yours may prove to be a hindrance to us yet."

"It's that human side that allows us freedom from hell."

The reflection opened its mouth to reply, but it was interrupted by a pounding on the door.

"Bella? Are you in there? Who's with you?"

"Edward," I hissed. The reflection smirked at me and melted back from the demonic image to my own. I stared at my reflection in the mirror for a moment, searching for something, though I didn't know what it was. Edward began to pound on the door again and I shook my head.

"I'm fine, Edward!" I shouted, turning on the tap to splash some water on my face. I grabbed a towel and wiped the water away before staring at my reflection once more. This was my game, and I needed to get control back. My demon was right; I couldn't allow myself to feel anything more than lust for Edward. I couldn't allow my human side to get the better of me.

I was the damn Princess of Hell, and it was time I started to act like it. I pasted a smirk on my face and turned to the door, opening it to see Edward leaning against the door frame with his hand raised, poised to begin banging once more.

"You remind me a lot of a babysitter I once had. She would never let me have a moment to myself either," I informed him with just the right amount of snark in my voice.

Edward didn't reply. Instead he reached out to grasp my chin gently and tilt my head back and forth, staring into my eyes with a furrow in his brow.

"They were red," he murmured softly. "I _know_ they were red."

"And yours switch from gold to black on a weekly basis. Don't dig too deeply into eye color unless you want the favour returned, Edward," I hissed back.

Edward's hand retracted from my chin as if he were burned, but he continued to stare at me, his brow still furrowed.

"What do you know?" he asked, his voice low and as dark as his now midnight eyes.

I smirked at Edward and went onto my tip toes so that I could breathe into Edward's ear.

"I know _everything_."

I pulled back and Edward looked at me as if he were torn between shaking me for answers and kissing me once more.

"I heard someone mention a hockey game earlier. I think I'm going to find it and join. Coming?"

I walked away from the washroom and Edward. The latter followed close on my heels.

"Whatever you think you know, isn't true, Bella," he said.

"Oh? So you're saying that if I thought the Cullen family were an average small town family I would be wrong? That's good to know."

"We both know that's not what you think Isabella Swan."

"Then prove me wrong, _Edward Cullen_." I grinned at him over my shoulder. "Come and amaze me with your hockey skills."

Edward's lips narrowed as he pursed them, but he gave me a tight nod and, impulsively, I reached back to grab his icy hand. I felt a shock jolt through me at the contact and, judging by his expression, Edward did as well. However, neither of us let go.

"What exactly is hockey?" Edward asked as I led him towards a table where six people were loudly playing the game.

"Oh, you'll see," I replied with what would have passed as an angelic smile on anyone but me. On me it was jus naughty.

The rules of hockey are simple. There are two teams of at least three players. Taking turns, each team member drains approximately a quarter of a cup of their drink of choice, then has to flip the cup so that goes from it's base to land on its top. The first team to have all members do this successfully wins. The losing team has to do a shot of straight alcohol.

While the rules are simple, actually succeeding in flipping the cup can be difficult, especially when you're drunk.

Or, apparently, if you're a vampire.

Edward seemed to always flip the cup either to hard, or too softly. That was why, after about twenty minutes of play, I was sat on the Newton's front step as Edward purged his stomach of the impressive amount of alcohol he had imbibed. I could tell by his mannerisms as we left the house that he wasn't drunk, so I wasn't sure if he was now throwing up because he'd decided that he'd drunk enough that a human would be purging themselves, or if he just couldn't handle anymore of the fluid in his stomach, but either way it was rather nasty.

"I may have to make you drink more often," I commented idly, watching him retch.

"And why's that?" Edward sneered in between heaves.

"If you keep throwing up in front of me, it won't take long before I never want to kiss you again."

"I got under your skin."

I shrugged airily, acting as if my reaction to him earlier hadn't been the least bit worrisome and waved at Emmett Cullen who approached us just as Edward began to retch once more.

"Dude, that's disgusting," Emmett said, watching Edward puke.

"It really is," I agreed. "Which is why I'm leaving him in your capable hands. I so did not sign up to play baby-sitter to the drunk."

I jumped from the step and breezed past Emmett, who ignored me in favour of watching his brother with a mixture of humour and worry. I didn't care that he took no notice of me. I had other places to be. Places, that if Emmett had arrived five minutes later, I would have been late getting to.

With Edward and Emmett otherwise occupied, and no other Cullens in sight, I slipped through the drunken crowd and out into the clearing hidden in the forest behind the Newtons' house.

"You're late."

I came to a halt in the center of the clearing and looked around for the owner of the low, hissing voice idly, not really expecting to be able to see anyone.

"I'm right on time according to my watch."

A shadow detached itself from the others surrounding me and moved until it was almost on top of me.

"_My_ watch is the one that matters here. Your payment?"

"Yeah, yeah. It's working, but could you be a bit more careful? Our agreement states that Hale has to kill someone before you get the full payment, but I'd rather it not happen in the middle of the school cafeteria. The vampires aren't the only ones that have to be careful."

"Because we all know how well you've been keeping to the background." It was hard to tell with the hissing voice, but I swore I detected some wry amusement in the words. I rolled my eyes.

"I haven't killed anyone, so I think I've been doing pretty well."

The shadow didn't reply, but a glint caught my eye and I looked down to see that a silver blade was protruding from it, handle towards me. I took the handle and looked at the knife curiously.

"I thought your payment would have been higher. Why do you want my blood anyways?"

"How little you know about your own nature, little demon," the shadow hissed as I drew the blade across my palm. It held out a glass vial that caught my blood as it dripped from my hand. "Demonic blood is addictive to our earth bound brethren- vampires, shape-shifters, witches, but the blood of a full demon is also extremely fatal for them. They last only mere hours. The blood of a half-demon such as yourself, however, holds all of the addictive features but isn't fatal. It may cause a little headache, possibly some nausea, but the one who drinks it won't die. Addiction is a great weapon, princess. One you should not underestimate if you hope to succeed in your mission."

The vial filled and I grabbed a bandage out of my back pocket, wrapping up the cut in my hand.

"If my blood's so addictive, then why haven't any of the vampires attacked me yet?" I asked as I surveyed my bandage to make sure it was neatly tied.

"They can smell the poison, even when it's as weak as the poison in your bloodstream. It makes it smell less appetizing, but once they imbibe they can't get enough despite the scent."

"Interesting," I murmured, contemplating the possibilities of this new knowledge. "Remember, the rest of the payment will be given when you fulfill your end of the bargain. If you fail, you won't like the consequences."

"Consequences rarely are enjoyable. If you'll excuse me, I have some work to do."

The shadow retreated and melted into those of the surrounding forest once more. I turned around to head back to the party and stopped dead in my tracks.

Framed between two trees stood none other than Edward Cullen.

_**A/N: Now, I have been nominated in the **_**Bring Me to Life**_** awards. This story is not one of the ones nominated, but my story **_**God Love Her**_** was nominated in the **_**Canon**_** and **_**Best Kiss**_** categories, **_**Moonlight Sonata**_** was nominated in the **_**Forever**_** category, and I was nominated in the **_**Hero**_** category. If anyone likes those stories or me, then they can vote for them (or me) at:**_

_**www (dot) bringmetolifeawards (dot) weebly (dot) com**_

_**Now, I'm off to continue to writing… and to get some sleep. This working full time thing is really cutting into my Lynyrd time. Please leave me some love!**_


	6. The Girl Who Cut Deals

_**A.N: I'm updating. Yay for updates! I would love to thank the lovely PTB betas who updated this and fixed my punctuation problems, because I suck at punctuation. Now, without further ado, let's get to number six.**_

_**Warning: This chapter has character death and is a little gruesome, just in case such things bother you. **_

**Six. The Girl Who Cut Deals**

"Are you going to be okay, little bro?"

I scowled at Emmett, who sat on the porch, watching me purge my system of the alcohol. I wasn't sure how Bella had manage to get so good at that damn cup game, but my plan to get her drunk had backfired.

In fact, many things had backfired, like my attempt to get under Isabella's skin with charm. Rather than simply mesmerizing her like I did most humans, I ended up in that earth-shattering lip lock with her.

Still, I _had_ gotten under her skin.

"What's with that ridiculous grin on your face?" Emmett asked, looking at me with a raised brow.

"Nothing, just thinking about something."

"Something as in a hot make out session with the girl you were supposed to be getting drunk? Yeah, Rose is pissed about that. Don't look so surprised, Edward. Crowley went around telling everyone about it." Emmett put his hands in his pocket and watched me. "Are you sure you're up to this? Getting answers from the Swan girl? Because you seem to be getting a little too involved, Edward. I'd hate to see you end up hurt."

"Emmett, I've been around slightly longer than you," I informed him dryly. "I think I know what I'm doing."

"Age doesn't mean much in this situation, Edward. It's all about experience, and when it comes to creatures like Isabella Swan, we have _none_."

_Morning Star…_

The thought came to me in Angela's voice and was the clearest thought I'd ever had from her. I whipped my head around to see her standing at the corner of the house. Emmett and I had been so caught up in our conversation that we had missed her approach.

"Can we help you?" Emmett asked in a pleasant voice, though his eyes were dark with displeasure.

_Maybe … black … leave…_

The thoughts were back to fragments, and Angela eyed Emmett like a frightened doe.

"I was looking for Bella, but I see she's not here. Maybe she's out back with the other party-goers. I hope you feel better soon, Edward."

Angela made a quick getaway, and I bit out a curse when she disappeared from sight and smacked Emmett on the shoulder.

"What was that for?" he demanded with a yelp, rubbing the limb.

"I was actually getting something from her before you went all dark prince on her," I snarled back.

"I was very pleasant. Besides, how was I supposed to know you were getting a thought? You've gotten nothing from her up until now. What did she think?"

"Morning Star," I murmured, more to myself than to Emmett. It had almost sounded as though she were correcting something.

"Morning Star? You're all pissy because she thought the words _Morning Star_? Obviously you were getting nothing," Emmett scoffed. "Look, it seems to me that this night is a bust. Isabella's disappeared, and you seem to finally have your-"

_ Edward, we need you and Emmett to help us, now!_

"—maybe we should just go— Hey! What's up?" Emmett yelped as I grabbed his arm without a word and started to drag him into the forest.

"It's Alice. She just said she needed help, and her thoughts were showing Jasper all feral. Something is very, very wrong."

Once Emmett and I entered the forest, we broke into a run. Jasper's thoughts joined those of Alice and Rose in my mind.

_So good. I just want to tear. Drain._

I sped up even more, leaving Emmett behind to follow me to our destination. The voices in my mind began to join together, so that I couldn't make out the separate thoughts. Rose faded into Alice who faded into Jasper who faded into … _Lauren Mallory_? I felt a sinking feeling in my stomach that worsened as the wind blue in my face, bringing with it the scent of human blood.

What I came upon was nothing short of a nightmare. Rose and Alice held a snarling Jasper against a tree while, several feet away, Lauren's torn body lay, bleeding onto the carpet of leaves that covered the forest's floor. She was still alive, but it was only a matter of time before that life came to a halt. I could tell by the garbled sounds of her breaths that Jasper had torn out her throat.

"Get him the hell away from here," I said to Alice, Rosalie, and Emmett, who had finally caught up to me. Emmett moved to help the girls drag Jasper away, but before he reached them, Jasper tore free from their grasp. He snarled at all four of us and shot a look of longing at Lauren's dying body before turning on his heel and running deeper into the forest. Emmett and the girls tore after him; Alice sent me a quick thought as they moved.

_Take care of Lauren._

I stared down at Lauren's dying body. She whimpered, looking up at me in pain. The venom was moving through her system, and I knew if I didn't move soon, the burning would soon consume her.

"I'm so sorry, Lauren," I whispered, reaching down to grasp her head in my hands. She looked at me, her expression a mix of confusion and pain as she attempted to garble something at me, but her ruined throat meant the words weren't understandable. I shut my eyes and clenched my teeth, wrenching her head hard. I felt the skin and bones tear, her head coming away from her body. It was the only way I could be sure the venom didn't do its job and turn her. Had I been capable, I would have thrown up, but with all the beer out of my system, I wasn't able. Instead, I dragged Lauren's body further into the forest, purposely making sure that her body was as undistinguishable as possible. By the time I was done, her body looked as if it had been ravaged by an animal. The police would inevitably assume that Lauren had wandered drunkenly into the forest and been attacked by a wolf, or possibly a wild cat of some sort, and dragged through the forest, while the sound of the party kept the attack from being heard. My family would never be looked at twice, and that thought made me feel disgusted. We were monsters, but we would never be judged for it, and an innocent's girl's death would go unavenged.

I finished with Lauren's body and looked around, unsure whether I should go home to set up our cover story, should we need it, or go after the Jasper with the others when I smelled Isabella. It was close, very close, and I could hear her voice along with another's, yet it was only her smell I could distinguish. I moved towards the voices, coming to a halt between two trees on the outside of a clearing. Bella spoke to something that could only be described as a shadow.

"Remember, the rest of the payment will be given when you fulfill your end of the bargain. If you fail, you won't like the consequences." She spoke the threat as if saying such things were completely natural while she surveyed a snowy white bandage that had been tied to her arm.

"Consequences rarely are enjoyable. If you'll excuse me, I have some work to do," the shadow replied before it melted away. If I hadn't heard its voice, a voice that sent more than just a tremor of fear throughout my whole body, I would've thought I had just imagined the creature.

Bella watched the place where the creature had been for a moment before she spun on her heel to walk in my direction. She came to an immediate halt as soon as she saw me; her eyes shuttered and showed me nothing. I stared into her pale, lovely face, a terrible feeling hitting me like a freight train.

I wasn't sure how, but I knew, deep in my gut, that Isabella Swan had somehow been involved with Jasper's attack on Lauren. I stared into her eyes, eyes that could show me everything and nothing at the same time, and felt a wave of regret as I realized that I would have to kill her. She had hurt my family, and they would demand nothing less than blood.

"How did you do it?" I asked softly, jumping right into the heart of everything that was happening. "How _could_ you do it? Does it not bother you that Lauren is dead because of you?"

Isabella watched me through those shuttered eyes, and for a moment, I was certain that she was going to deny her involvement. I was prepared to wring her neck to get answers if necessary. Then she shrugged.

"Lauren, was it? Well, at least it wasn't anyone that will be a great loss to the world. Honestly, if he had managed to get his teeth into Ben Cheney, I think I may have felt a little bit of regret."

I was in front of her in seconds, snarling into her beautiful face.

"Why us? Why did you feel the need to destroy everything we've worked so hard for?"

"Would you believe me if I said because I could? Of course you would; I'd make you believe me." She turned her back to me and walked to a fallen log, where she lounged lazily along its length. "But for some odd reason, I don't wish to lie to you right now, so I'll give you the truth. I was hired to target your family, Edward. By those your patriarch considers his great friends." She surveyed me beneath her long lashes. "Were I you, I wouldn't be asking why _I'm_ targeting you, but rather why the Volturi wish me to."

I felt stunned at her words. Aro, Caius, and Marcus were the equivalent of royalty in the vampire world. They made sure all vampires followed the one law of our world: never be discovered. Carlisle had spent several years with them and considered them friends despite their differences in opinion.

"You work for the Volturi." My lips felt numb as I said the words.

Isabella snorted derisively.

"Hardly. I work for a much higher power than Aro." She surveyed her fingernails, as if bored with our conversation. "You know, the shadow didn't force Jasper to kill Mallory. It just offers up the temptation. Whether or not to accept it was entirely up to Jasper."

"The echo," I murmured. "That was the voice I heard in Jasper's head. It sounded like him, but not quite."

"Really?" Isabella sat up, actually looking interested. "So _that's_ how it works. Well, damn. If I'd known it was as simple as that, I probably could've found someone to do the work cheaper." She sat back, crossing her arms and pouting, and I found myself glaring at her.

"You don't feel the least bit remorseful, do you?" I demanded.

"I don't feel remorse. Just like I don't feel love." She looked at me, her pout turning into a frown. "I'm not capable of it, Edward. I never have been."

I could have sworn there was a note of longing in her voice, but before I could dwell on it, a blur went rushing past me for Isabella's throat.

"You bitch!"

It was Alice, and I realized that I wouldn't be the one to kill Isabella. No, it would be Alice, except…

There was a loud snap as Alice broke the log in half where Isabella had been lounging, rather than the girl herself. Alice looked around angrily, her eyes snapping with more fury than I've ever seen.

"Temper, temper, Miss Cullen," drawled Isabella in a mocking voice. Except there was a guttural sound to it, and it came from above us. Both Alice and I looked up, but there was nothing there. I heard a thud behind me and spun around. There Isabella stood, looking a little ruffled, almost windblown, but none the worse for wear.

"This is your fault. I know it is," Alice snarled, catapulting herself at Isabella once more. This time, I caught her and held her back. Alice fought against me, her thoughts screaming that I was a traitor letting my dick do my thinking. I ignored them.

"I want answers," I said to Isabella. "What was that thing, and what did it mean by payment?"

Isabella ignored me, instead looking at Alice.

"Are you really angry at me, or are you just mad that you weren't enough to keep him from giving into temptation? Yell and scream at _me_ all you want, Mary Alice Brandon, but Jasper is the one who killed the girl. Had he wanted to, he _could have_ resisted temptation. But Jasper knows something that the rest of your family just doesn't seem to get. You. Are. Fucking. Vampires. You kill, you're at the top of the food chain, and you shouldn't expect Jasper to fall into Carlisle's idealistic way of thinking. Not if you love him, and not if you want to survive. Because I'm the least of your problems, Alice." Bella looked at me, and I realized that her eyes once again glowed red. "I've told you all that I'm going to, Edward. Now it's up to you to decide what to do with that knowledge."

She turned to walk away, and Alice begged me to let her go, to let her rip Isabella to shreds, but I found myself refusing. Not just because I wasn't entirely sure that it wouldn't be _Isabella_ doing the ripping, but because something else, a sixth sense perhaps, told me that killing Isabella right now would be a very, _very_ bad idea.

"Why did you tell me?" I asked her retreating back. "About Aro."

She paused and there was silence as she debated whether or not to answer.

"Against my better judgement," she said at last. "I find myself caring about whether you live or die. Your family I could care less about … but you…" She shook her head and began to walk again.

"What does _Morning_ _Star_ mean?" I shouted after her, but this time she didn't even slow down her steps. I watched her figure disappear into the trees.

It wasn't until I was left in a clearing, devoid of anyone but me and Alice, who was dry sobbing in my arms, that I realized she had gone in the opposite direction of the party.

_**A.N2: So, now we get to the real good stuff. Can anyone guess how Bella got away from Alice? Hint: It was mentioned earlier in the story as an ability Bella **_**didn't**_** have. **_

_**On another note, I sent most of the previous chapter's reviewers a message giving them an e-mail and password that would allow them to access a hotmail account where I would be putting spoilers. Here it is for everyone else:**_

_**dwtdd_online hotmail . com**_

_**password: morningstar**_

_**You can also reply and ask questions, although I can't guarantee they'll be answered.**_

_**Finally, everyone should check out the Fandom Fights Tsunami. There are several awesome authors contributing, and you'll get a whole long compilation for donating just a little bit to the Japanese Tsunami relief. **_

_**http : / fandomfightstsunami . blogspot .com /**_

_**Please remember to take the spaces out of all links/email addresses given.**_


	7. Author's Note

**Well, I finally have to throw in the towel. I said that I'd be finishing my "Twilight" stories, but it doesn't look like that is going to happen. After months spent trying to find some motivation for both "God Love Her" and "Dancing With the Devil's Daughter" I've realized that I've lost my love of the "Twilight" fandom. This is sad for me, because "Twilight" was the fandom that I always came back to.**

**There is a chance that someday I may finish these stories, but for now they'll be on indefinite hiatus. I'm sorry to everyone who enjoyed and was looking forward to how they turned out, but it just doesn't look like it will be happening any time soon.**

**Thank-you to everyone who favourited and followed these stories. I do plan on writing for other fandoms, and actually have a couple of stories in the works. If you enjoyed my writing and "The Vampire Diaries" then keep an eye out. For everyone else, thank-you for your time.**

**~Lynyrd Lionheart**


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